Saturday, September 30, 2017

Many of my books and stories are used in classrooms. Some favorites are Woman with Horns and Flip Gothic, used in the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, the University of San Carlos in Cebu, and the Cebu Normal University. I believe other schools use my stories in their curriculum, but these are the universities whose students have posted YouTube film clips. I invite you to watch them. The students have so much energy and creativity, it's a joy to watch. I've also included the Kindle links to the stories.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.

There's a new movie out, Loving Vincent, by Breakthru Films and Trademark Films. It's reportedly the world's first fully painted feature film, with over 62,000 oil paintings used as frames for this animated movie. Watching the movie was a fascinating experience: I felt as if I entered the world of Vincent Van Gogh! (Be sure and watch the Trailer here.)

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Here are the Authors Featured in HOT OFF THE PRESS Literary Readings. Join us on Oct. 7 and 8 -- see schedule below. Click on the images to make them large.

This year, there will be three HOT OFF THE PRESS Literary Readings at the Filipino American International Book Festival, which will be held at the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Civic Center, San Francisco, CA 94102. The schedule follows:

The First HOT OFF THE PRESS Literary Reading, moderated by Cecilia Brainard Saturday, October 7, 2017, from 1:30-2:50 p.m.Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library:

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.

My college class is having a mini-reunion in Toronto, Canada. I put together this collage of our graduation pictures, and I'm sharing random group pictures that include these women. (Click on the pictures to make them large.)

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

I'm sharing my personal essay which was published in the book, Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters (Anvil 2009), edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard & Marily Orosa. The book won the prestigious Gintong Aklat Award for 2010. The book is available from Anvil.com - http://www.anvilpublishing.com/shop/fiction-literature/finding-god/

Finding
God through Mary

Cecilia
Manguerra Brainard

I
am not sure when exactly I strayed from God because I had always turned to Him
even when I was a child. I remember how, after my father’s death I tried to
understand that I’d never see my father again, that he was now in heaven. My
concept of heaven then was fluffy clouds and a bearded old man as God, but I
had a difficult time seeing my father in that setting. Even though I didn’t know
where he went, I believed in the afterlife and hatched the idea of writing to
him to update him of my life.

His
death left my life in chaos: my mother, frantic about how to take care of her
four children; my siblings taking off to other countries to study. I turned to
the nuns in my school and to the Catholicism they taught me. The nuns’ rules
and Church’s rules helped give my life a framework. I did well in school; I
went to Mass and prayed. The prayers were childish: give me this, give me that,
a constant focus on I, me, and myself, not realizing I was a pinprick in the
universe.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Here are 2 more authors who'll be participating in the HOT OFF THE PRESS Literary Readings in San Francisco on October 7 and 8, 2017. These readings are part of the Filipino American International Book Festival. They will be held at the San Francisco Main Library at 100 Larkin Street, Civic Center, San Francisco, CA 94102.

Women Against Marcos: Stories of Filipino and Filipino American Women Who Fought a Dictator. Carayan Press, 2016

Mila De Guzman is a freelance writer, correspondent for Inquirer.net, and author of Women Against Marcos: Stories of Filipino and Filipino American Women Who Fought a Dictator.She was a member of the Coalition Against the Marcos Dictatorship and Union of Democratic Filipinos that fought against the Marcos dictatorship and for the democratic rights of Filipino-Americans. Mila worked for 20 years at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. She received her M.A. and M.F.A. in Writing from the University of San Francisco and has been awarded writing residencies at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island, Washington and Mesa Refuge in Marin County. Mila is a member of Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard will be reading from her novel The Newspaper Widow (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House 2017)

Cecilia
Manguerra Brainard is the author and editor of 20 books, including the novels When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena, and The Newspaper Widow. Her work has been
translated into Finnish and Turkish and many of her stories and articles have
been widely anthologized. She has
received awards including a California Arts Council Fellowship, a Brody Arts
Fund Award, an Outstanding Individual Award from Cebu, Philippines, and several
USIS grants. Cecilia also heads Philippine American Literary House (PALH), a
literary press that publishes high quality fiction and creative non-fiction by Filipino
Americans. Her novel, The Newspaper Widow,
was shortlisted in the Cirilo Bautista Prize for the novel in 2015.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

FEATURED AUTHORS:Here are two more authors who'll be participating in the HOT OFF THE PRESS Literary Readings in San Francisco on October 7 and 8, 2017. These readings are part of the Filipino American International Book Festival. They will be held at the San Francisco Main Library at 100 Larkin Street, Civic Center, San Francisco, CA 94102.

I'll be featuring more participants of the HOT OFF THE PRESS Literary Readings, so stay tuned!

Australia-based writer Merlinda Bobis writes in three languages across multiple
genres. Her works have received literary recognition in Australia, Philippines,
USA, and Italy. She has performed her dramatic works at various international
venues. About her creative process, she writes: ‘Writing visits like grace. In
an inspired moment we almost believe that anguish can be made bearable and
injustice can be overturned, because they can be named. And if we’re lucky, joy
can even be multiplied, so we may have reserves in the cupboard for the lean
times.’

Memoirs
of Manang: The Story of a Filipina American Pioneer (Eastwind Books of Berkeley 2015)

Victoria Santosworked in social services and community mental health before her
cultural diversity training and consulting career. She co-founded Filipinos for
Affirmative Action (now Filipino Advocates for Justice), and Asian Community
Mental Health Services in Oakland, and was interim director for SF Asian Women’s
Shelter. She is past president of East Bay FANHS and was elected to the
FANHS National Board of Trustees in 2016. Filipino Women’s Network named
her one of 100 Most Influential Women in the U.S. in 2012. She contributed
to Seven Card Stud with Seven Manangs Wild and Beyond
Lumpia, Pansit and Seven Manangs Wild.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.

Monday, September 18, 2017

FEATURED AUTHORS:Here are two more authors who'll be participating in the HOT OFF THE PRESS Literary Readings in San Francisco on October 7 and 8, 2017. These readings are part of the Filipino American International Book Festival. They will be held at the San Francisco Main Library at 100 Larkin Street, Civic Center, San Francisco, CA 94102.

I'll be featuring more participants of the HOT OFF THE PRESS Literary Readings, so stay tuned!

Daughter of Queen of Rock and Roll Elizabeth Ramsey, Susan
Ramsey or Sansu started her show business career as the 13-year-old back-up
dancer for her mother. After raising her family, Sansu hosted her own variety
TV show, the Sansu Show, a weekly variety talk show featuring inspirational,
talented and successful Global Pinoys. Sansu had
always envisioned that “a little bit of comedy, some singing and dancing, my
uniquely-hearty laughter, and her Bisaya- accented English with English
sub-titles” would bridge the gap between young and old, communities of color,
and lifestyles.

Amanda
Ngoho Reavey will read from: .

Marilyn. (The Operating System, 2015)

Amanda Ngoho Reavey is
a poet and teacher interested in ancestral stories and plant spirit
communication. She is the author
of Marilyn, winner of the 2017 Best Book Award in Poetry from the Association for Asian
American Studies, and her poems and
essays appear in Construction Literary Magazine, Anthropoid, TRUCK,
and Evening Will Come, among others. Reavey is the founder and
managing editor of Tea & Tattered Pages, and she works at Woodland Pattern Book
Center. She has an MFA in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University. For more information visit https://amandangohoreavey.com/.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.

About Me

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Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the award-winning author of 10 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose. She edited four books, co-edited six books, and co-authored a novel, Angelica's Daughters.
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants from the USIS.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.